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CHARACTER BUILDING 



TALKS TO YOUNG MEN 



BY THK 



Rev. R. S. BARRETT 




NEW YORK 

THOMAS WHITTAKER 

a and 3 Bible Housb 

1882 






Copyright, l882, 

By R. S. Barrett. 



Press of The Cas*. Lockwood & Brainard Comfavt, 
Hartford, Conn. 



PREFACE. 



These talks were given without notes on 
Sunday evenings, at St. Paul's Church, Hen- 
derson, Ky. ; and were published next day in 
the Reporter. This little volume has been 
made without alteration irooi the columns of 
that paper. This will account for several 
local references. I affectionately dedicate 
these pages to my congregation at Henderson. 

R. S. B. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

I. Destiny, 7 

IJ. The Value of Time, .... 16 

III. Reading, 26 

IV. Bad Habits, 36 

V. Strong Drink, 46 

VI. Companions, 57 

VII. Religion, , 67 






TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 



I.— DESTINY. 




THINK, as a rule, young men and 
preachers do not understand each 
other. It is partly the fault of both. 
Young men hold aloof and will not let the 
preachers see their best side, and preachers, 
on their part, do not let the young men see 
their human side. Sidney Smith, you remem- 
ber, said, " There are three sexes, men, women 
and preachers.'' Now, that is about the idea 
that the average young man lias of the aver- 
age preacher, that he is a freak of nature, a 
unique thing, all by himself. I confess a de- 
cided partiality for young men. I do not 
pretend to think them angels. Indeed, I dare 
say they are even worse than most preachers 



g TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

think, and yet, I do not think I contradict my- 
self when I say they are also better than most 
preachers think. They are a strange mixture 
of good and evil. On the steamboat the other 
night, I found fifteen or twenty young men. 
They did not know that I was a preacher, and 
swore and talked outrageously enough for sev- 
eral hours. One might have thought them 
wholly bad, but I knew better. And so it 
proved. As the night wore on they began to 
talk more quietly, and expressed some very 
sensible and reverent views about sacred 
things. I heard them admire the earnest reli- 
gious character of some one whom they knew. 

Indeed, I have known young men to go 
home from a drunken debauch to deplore their 
weakness and cry to God for strength. 

I have been led to these remarks at the out- 
set of our talks, because I want you to feel my 
sincere respect for the good that is in you. I 
earnestly desire to take hold of that good, and 
if God should so honor me to help that good 
to be better. I speak simply as a young man 
to young men. 

Now, the first thing I am going to say is 



DEStfNY. 9 

that I want you all to believe in your own 
destiny. I do not mean that you were born 
under some lucky star, or that the fates have 
intended you to be the President of the United 
States. I mean that you ought to realize that 
God has made you and kept you for a purpose. 
Never think that Blind Fate is your mother, 
and that she has left you helpless at the door 
of creation like a foundling child ; but believe 
that God is your father, and that he has led 
you a free-born son into this school of life to 
learn and to labor. Learn to believe that you 
and I and every man has a place in the great 
scheme of this world ; that God has given us 
powers and talents and placed us here to be 
workmen, and that we have a work to do 
which will not be done at all unless it be done 
by us. 

When a young man has grasped with both 
hands this idea that he has a destiny, and that 
there is a purpose and reason for his partic- 
ular existence, I think he has one of the best 
heritages a young man can have. 

But many have no such idea. To many, 
life has no purpose. They go along the road 
1* 



JO TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

gathering the flowers at random. They live, 
talk, laugh, drink, and dance, not to re-create 
the jaded energies for to-morrow's battle, but 
because such things amuse them and kill the 
time. 

Such a thing as earnestly asking, " What 
am I for ? " " What am I to be ? " « What 
am I to do ? " " What am I now doing to 
fulfill my destiny ? " such questions do not 
enter their heads. 

The boy in a deep study at his desk is not 
thinking of his responsibilities, but of how he 
can mend his skates. 

What is the blue-eyed youth thinking about 
on the summer's morning, as he gazes out the 
church window at the sky ? Of his destiny ? 
Perhaps he thinks so, but not of what we 
mean by destiny. And the young men eager- 
ly discussing some question over their cigars. 
Is it the battle of life or the next dancing 
party ? So they go, drifting along, drifting 
along down the stream, singing as they go. 
Drifting along through the happy morning 
and under the bright sky, thinking that it is 
enough to live. 



i 



DESTINY. 11 

To this merry crew, we hear the words of 
the wise man calling from the shore : " Re- 
joice, young man in thy youth, and let thy 
heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and 
walk in the ways of thine heart and in the 
light of thine eyes, but know thou for all these 
things, God will bring thee to judgment." 

We do not think that Solomon intended in 
these words to reprove the joy and gladness of 
youth, or discourage the merry heart and glad 
countenance, or cut off one innocent pleasure, 
or make any less young and gay. 

Solomon did not think a young had reached 
his destiny when he stopped dancing, and held 
up his hands in horror at a billiard cue. He 
only wanted all young men to feel that God 
would bring youth as well as age to judgment. 
He wanted all to feel in this best and most 
important, this seed-time of life, that they are 
real and responsible men, with work to do and 
God over head. He wanted them to realize 
that they have a destiny high and holy, which 
cannot fail except by their own neglect. 

This brings us to our second point, which 
is, that this destiny of which we have been 



12 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

speaking is in a large measure in our own 
keeping. There is much fatalism in the 
world. Men think that the world is controlled 
by some inexorable fate, that their own destiny 
is fixed for them by some mysterious hand. I 
do not believe this at all. I believe in a free 
will. I believe a man must work out his own 
salvation, temporal and spiritual. God gives 
him this salvation of course, but he must work 
it out. God gives salvation as he might give 
a garden or vineyard, but on the man will de- 
pend whether it brings forth fruit or weeds. 
I do not deny that there are circumstances 
which affect your destiny. But circumstances 
cannot control it. Circumstances may be 
overruled ; they may be captured like the ene- 
my's guns and turned to our own advantage. 
Your destiny will depend greatly on your will. 
Believe in your own will. Put these two 
things together, destiny and will, and raise 
them high in your mind. Submit neither to 
any power but the will of God. Never weakly 
think that you cannot help doing wrong or 
neglecting duty. Never think yourself the 
creature of circumstance, or of any other crea- 






DESTINY. 13 

ture, but with humble trust in God, and sub- 
mission to Him go forth a free man of destiny 
and will. 

This is not vanity or self conceit. Vanity 
fixes a man's thoughts upon himself and not 
upon his work. We must forget ourselves in 
our work, just as miners put their candles in 
their caps to keep their own shadows from 
falling on their work. 

Nor is there any ambition is this. I don't 
know that ambition is always wrong, but this 
of which I am speaking is not ambition, it is 
aspiration. There is a great difference. Am- 
bition wishes to have what aspiration desires 
to deserve. Ambition wishes to seem what as- 
piration desires to be. In politics, ambition 
makes demagogues, aspiration makes patriots. 
In religion, ambition makes hypocrites, aspira- 
tion makes saints. Ambition seeks wealth 
and fame, as final ends of life, aspiration seeks 
them as means to promote the welfare of man 
and the glory of God. Yes, a belief that God 
has joined together our destiny and our will 
is aspiration! And that raises a man far 
above the brute and crowns his head with a 
divine glory. 



14 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

I will not say into what channels your aspi- 
ration must flow ; with it all work is dignified. 
It made the carpenter shop of Nazareth holy, 
and threw a halo around the tents made by 
St. Paul. 

Let us then earnestly and^ reverently take 
hold of the nearest honest work. Wait for 
nothing. Do not wait for something to turn 
up. Do not wait for somebody to die and 
leave you a destiny. Do not hang around and 
try to marry a destiny. Make one for your- 
self. Do not wait for genius ; some one has 
said in substance " while genius is lying on a 
sofa waiting for inspiration, labor will go to 
work, buy that sofa and put genius out of the 
back door." 

You are to be congratulated upon living in 
an age and country in which these principles 
may reach their highest maturity. America 
and the Nineteenth Century. These two 
words are enough to arouse the sleeping aspi- 
rations of any youth. 

America : a land where no tyrant's heel sup- 
presses your freedom. The Nineteenth Cen- 
tury : a time when every true work will meet 






DESTINY. 15 

its true reward, and every noble aspiration 
will have a thousand doors opened to its wel- 
come. What a privilege to live and work in 
such an age and land. Ours is a soil which 
yields the richest increase to worthy enter- 
prise. Ours is an age which posterity will 
call the spring time of invention, when mar- 
vels of literature and art and science and me- 
chanism spring up under our feet and over 
our heads like the grass and leaves. 

What a shame to have lived and died in 
such an age and such a land, and to have 
taken no part, to have had no place, to have 
done no work. 

You will not, my young brother, permit this 
to be true of you. Go forth to-night trusting 
in God. Thank Him for your brain, for your 
heart, for your free-will, and for a new belief 
in your own destiny. 



n. — VALUE OF TIME. 




JO teach us to number our days 
that we may apply our hearts 
unto wisdom," said the Psalmist. 
All that he meant was that he desired God to 
give him a just sense of the shortness of life, 
that he might value time and use it well. And 
that is what we want to-night. 

It was Dr. Young who said — " The man is 
yet unborn who duly weighs an hour." But 
some weigh an hour better than others. And 
other things being equal, he who best weighs 
the hour best spends the hour. Other things 
being equal, men are successful as they value 
time. 

Perhaps one reason why we are prodigal of 
time is because we do not realize how little 
there is. Youths are often extravagant be- 
cause they over-estimate their means. Old 
men are seldom spendthrifts in money or time. 

(16) 



VALUE OF TIME. j^ 

Old men number their days. The two ends 
of life are like the two ends of an opera glass. 
From one end it looks very long, from the 
other very short. A point would be gained if 
the young men would take account of time. 

" The days of our age are three-score years 
and ten," — says the Psalmist. That is a 
liberal estimate. Many of us will go before 
we are fifty. But for sake of argument sup- 
pose we will all live till we are seventy. At 
that rate you boys of twenty will have 18,250 
days; you of twenty-live will have 16,425 
days ; you of thirty, 14,600 days ; you of forty, 
10,950 days. That is your capital. But it is 
capital to which you cannot add. It draws 
no interest. You live on the principal. Much 
of it must go for debt. One-third to sleep ; a 
large amount to demands of nature ; a heavy 
tax to the tyranny of custom ; a good deal to 
sickness. 

If you had $16,000 you might think it a 
goodly sum. But if you could add nothing to 
it and must live on the principal, and half of 
it must go for debt, you would be very careful 
with the other half. So should we be careful 



ig TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

with our days. Seneca said : " It is a virtue 
to be covetous of time ! " No treasure is so 
precious, and no waste so ruinous. Other 
treasures may be regained, but not so with 
time. Some one records having seen the fol- 
lowing notice : u Lost ! Somewhere between 
sunrise and sunset, two gold hours, each set 
with sixty diamond moments. No reward is 
offered for their recovery, for they are lost for- 
ever ! " Wealth may be restored ; health re- 
gained; friends reconciled; even lost reputa- 
tion redeemed ; but each moment the span of 
life becomes forever less ! This day just end- 
ed with the setting sun will never come back, 
and the year just closed will never return. 

However, there is one way in which life may 
be prolonged. Did you ever stand and look 
upon a broad expanse of water ? It is ten 
miles wide, but looks only three. But, after 
a while it becomes full of ships and steamers 
and boats. Some a half mile away ; some a 
mile, some two miles, some three and four and 
five and so on, up to ten miles off. Now the 
water so full of objects seems its full width. So 
will a life full of events and work be broader 



VALUE OF TIME. 19 

and longer than a smooth, flat life. St. Paul's 
life seems much longer than Methuselah's. 
Napoleon's fifty-two years seem ten times as 
long as the life of some dull old monk. The 
nineteenth century seems as long as six cen- 
turies in the middle ages. So will that life be 
long in which each day and every hour is filled 
with work which in the retrospect of age will 
stand boldly upon the landscape. 

It stimulates our wills to see what some men 
have done with their time. Sir William Ham- 
ilton read about 10,000 books and made mar- 
ginal notes upon them. Macaulay learned 
German on a sea voyage. St. Paul in about 
thirty years preached the gospel and planted 
churches over the whole known world. Fran- 
cis Xavier baptized a hundred thousand con- 
verts. Nero made his unenviable reputation 
before he was thirty. Alexander made his 
conquests at the same age. Caesar is said to 
have wept when he found that Alexander had 
completed his work at the age when Caesar 
was beginning. What has been done, can be 
done! 

The next thing we proposed to do was to 



20 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

give some rules. Rules for saving time are 
mucli like rules for saving money. In the 
first place we must provide against thieves. 
Much time is stolen. Some of it is stolen by 
sleep. I have never heard that you oversleep 
yourselves, but sleep is a thief that must be 
watched. Seven or eight hours we need, but no 
more ; and I will say while on this subject that 
if you can get three of these hours in before 
midnight so much the better. 

Indolence is another thief, but I will pass 
that by. 

Procrastination is called " the thief of time," 
and surely we must not procrastinate if we 
would save time. If a man says lie wants to 
see you some time, say to him " you had better 
see me now ! " It would be well for all to 
write where they can see it on waking, and 
above the desk, and on the work shop door : 
" Now is the acceptable time, now is the day 
of salvation." 

Loafing is a bad thief. A man is not ne- 
cessarily a loafer because he is on the street. 
I notice that in this city much trade is carried 
on upon the street. We must not judge 



VALUE OF TIME. 21 

others, but we must guard ourselves against 
loafing. It is a bad business. It is poor re- 
creation. I like to see young people amuse 
themselves. I do not think that earnest play 
is a waste of time. It is good for soul as well 
as body. I wish you had a good base ball 
club, and a good boating club and hunting and 
fishing club. I would like to join them all. 
But idleness is a waste of time. It is letting 
yourself be robbed by a sneak thief. Although 
I am a preacher, I would rather join a dancing 
club than to give my name to a street corner 
caucus. 

I think one of the most pitiful sights in this 
world is a young man with nothing to do. A 
friend of mine in Richmond, Va., was told of 
a man who would join his confirmation class. 
"What does he do ?" said my friend. " Well," 
said the other, " I don't believe he does any- 
thing." " Then," said my friend, " I do not 
want him in my church." Nothing to do! 
Nothing to do, where others find so much to 
learn and read and think ! Nothing to do, 
where there are so many invitations to enter- 
prise ; so many calls for help ; so many mouths 
to feed ; so many souls to save! 



22 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

Oh, what a spectacle that will be when our 
generation is called to judgment, and the 
physician will come and say, " Lord, I spent 
my few days in relieving pain ; " and the law- 
yer will say : " I dispensed justice ; " and the 
merchant will say : " I promoted commerce ; " 
and the mechanic will say : " With these hands 
I labored for my children ; " and the minister 
will say : " I preached the gospel ; " and an- 
gels will say : " We were ministering spirits f 
and Jesus will show his hands scarred with 
the labors of the world's redemption, and then 
a fine young gentleman with his hands in his 
pockets will stroll up and say : " Lord } T was a 
loafer, I had nothing to do." 

Yes, sleep, indolence, procrastination, and 
loafing are some of the thieves. But to save 
time we must not only watch the thieves, but 
our own extravagance. 

We are prodigal of time. Our first extra- 
vagance is that we throw away the fragments. 
Sometimes we say, " I will not break this five 
dollar note, for then I will spend it." So we 
think when we break a day we may spend the 
fragments. That is a great mistake. I dare 



VALUE OF TIME. 23 

say more time is lost by industrious men in 
this way than in any other. Some of the 
greatest works of art and literature, and me- 
chanical invention, have been accomplished 
with the fragments of time. Dr. Abercrombie 
was a busy physician, yet he wrote many val- 
uable books with a lead pencil while traveling 
in his carriage. Hugh Miller was a stone cut- 
ter, but he wrote a library of science. Fulton 
invented the steamboat and Morse the tele- 
graph with the fragments of time. " Gather 
up the fragments," said the Saviour, "that 
nothing be lost." 

Another piece of extravagance is giving 
more for a thing than it is worth. Some 
things are worth a dollar, but dear at two dol- 
lars. Some things are worth an hour, but 
dear at two hours. There is an expression, 
" the game is not worth the candle." Very 
often a game is not worth the time it takes. 

I have already said, I believe in hearty re- 
creations. But these are relishes, not food. 
We must not make a dinner of sweetmeats. 
The great bulk of time must be given to solid 
duty. Make these two rules : " First, that all 



24 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

time is precious, and secondly, that it ought 
to be dispensed to the objects of life according 
to their value." 

But let me say that there is one object to 
which we cannot give too much time. Xo 
man can give too much time to doing good. 
Xo man can spend too much time in helping 
his fellowman, in making him better, in leading 
him upward, in bringing him to God, in conduct- 
ing him to a safe entrance into that land where 
days are not numbered and years cannot fail. 
Xo man can give too much time to his own 
religion, to his own soul's safety. I expect 
when we pass to that land where we shall 
" duly weigh an hour," that religion will seem 
the only object worth our precious time. Yet 
many heathen who know no such object will 
arise up against us. Not only against Domi- 
tian who spent his kingly time in killing flies, 
not only against Xero who fiddled while Rome 
burnt, not only against the King of Parthia 
who killed moles, but against us also who in 
our grand age, give our time to trifles. 

Let me beg you to set two guards about the 
day, one at the morning and one at the even- 



VALUE OF TIME. 25 

ing. When you rise, ask God to help you 
spend the day. And when you go to rest ex- 
amine that day in His sight. 

And so when the angel which St. John saw 
in the Revelation " clothed in a cloud, with a 
rainbow upon his head, and his face as it were 
the sun and his feet as pillars of fire, shall 
stand upon the sea and upon the earth, and 
swear by Him that liveth forever that there 
shall be time no longer," then I trust we shall 
all have the best treasure that time can buy, 
even the hope of a blessed immortality. 



READING. 




F Solomon thought in his day, that 
" of making many books there is no 
end," what would he think now if we 
could carry him through one of our great li- 
braries. The Congressional library at Wash- 
ington has 270,000 volumes. There are many 
other libraries as large and some much larger. 
The Royal Library at Munich and the Im- 
perial Library at St. Petersburg have 900,000 
volumes. The National Library of France and 
the British Museum have each 1,500,000 vol- 
umes. 

All of this has been done in modern times. 
As late as 1300 the library of Oxford was 
locked up in a little box. In 1494 the library 
of the Bishop of Winchester had parts of 
seventeen books. When he borrowed a Bible 
from St. Swithen, he gave a heavy bond that 
he would bring it back safe. Then one could 

(26) 



READING. gf 

easily " read, mark, learn, and inwardly di- 
gest " all the books in reach. But now it 
would take a life time to look over the books 
written in a single year. What must we do ? 
Why, we must choose our books. Read as 
many as we can of the good, and that we may 
do this we must let the bad entirely alone. 

If you know of a clear stream full of bass 
and salmon and trout, you would not go to a 
mud puddle and fish for minnows and eels. 
So, give your reading time to the great books. 
Never read a poor book. Never read " Trash." 
I suppose there are about two hundred good 
novels in this world which any one may read 
with profit. Most of the remainder are trash. 
But two hundred novels are certainly enough 
for a life time. I think it will not hurt any- 
body to read two or three novels a year. But, 
as you are going to read but two hundred, be 
very careful how you choose them. Don't 
read any trashy novels ; and as for sensational 
story papers, flee them as a pestilence. It is 
really almost enough to make one despair of 
our race to see a strong, able-bodied young 
man hiding behind the folds of a cheap wood- 



28 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

cut paper, concentrating the whole of his 
mighty genius upon some sentimental romance 
of love and blood ! 

Such reading is poison ! If weakens the 
mind, inflames the imagination, warps the 
judgment, deadens the conscience, and makes 
the reader look at all the world with a jaun- 
diced eve. 

But, you say, we read these questionable 
books, as we go into questionable places, 
to learn life. You had just as well go into a 
tiger's cage to learn zoology. To love a bad 
book because of its beauty is like fondling 
the coils of a serpent because they are bright, 
or caressing the hand of an assassin because 
it is jeweled. You may think these books do 
not hurt you, but they do hurt you. They are 
poison, and they not only fill you with ulcers, 
but blind your eyes so that you cannot see 
them. 

About ten years ago I was one day denounc- 
ing a certain book of poetry before a Bible 
class of young ladies. " Why," said one of 
the girls, " I keep that book under my pillow, 
and it has never hurt me." But not very long 



READING. 29 

after that this very girl ran off and married 
one of the most worthless characters in the 
community. 

I am sure it is a good rule for every aspiring 
young man to make, that he will read no 
doubtful literature, no dime novels, no novels 
which we do not know to be truly great books, 
and no story papers, and I might add there is 
a good deal in some of the daily papers which 
will do us no good. 

A book, after all, is but the companionship 
of an absent author. And surely no one would 
prefer to sit down and listen to some obscure 
fellow spin an imagined story from his sickly 
brain, than to hear Bayard Taylor tell of his 
travels, or Dean Stanley relate the life of Dr. 
Arnold. 

What a privilege to be admitted into the 
company of the mighty dead and to hear them 
talk. We should like to have known old 
Chaucer and Shakespeare and Milton, but we 
have on our bookshelves the best they had to 
say. 

We should like to have listened to South or 
Burke or Webster, but we have their best 



30 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

speeches. We can go into the presence of all 
the great of earth. They will give us their 
wisest words. We are not angered at their 
reproofs. They furnish us the best amuse- 
ment ; they give their rich experience ; they 
impart knowledge which is the fruit of a life's 
research ; they form our own style of thinking 
and speaking, so that after we have walked a 
time together we catch step, and find ourselves, 
learning the measured tread of Dr. Jonson, 
or writing the simple Saxon of Bunyan. 

But you will ask, when shall we who make 
our living at desk or counter find the time to 
do this reading ? That depends upon your 
habits. But I am sure all can find time to 
read one, and I think two hours every day. 
That would carry you through thirty or forty 
books a year, and that is about as much as 
one wants to read. 

By two hours thus spent you will soon ac- 
quire the invaluable habit of method, and qual- 
ify yourself to stand among men of culture 
and make a mark in the world. 

Some young men are discouraged from read- 
ing because they have not had a college educa- 



READING. 31 

tion. We do not know the classics, they say. 
Well, if by classics you mean Latin and Greek, 
I think most young men are just as well off 
without them as they are with them. 

They say a physician must have Latin to 
write prescriptions which nobody else can 
read. A school teacher must know " the lan- 
guages." A preacher must have Greek and 
Hebrew. But I think there is a vast amount 
of time wasted in teaching Latin and Greek 
to boys who intend to forget it as soon as 
they can. At any rate I should say, don't 
be discouraged because you don't know Latin. 
I do not believe that one cannot speak good 
English without a knowledge of Latin. It 
will help of course, but I know men who speak 
and write well who have no Latin. I believe 
in our own language and literature. I think 
it is as much better than the ancient as the sun 
is brighter than the moon. The moon rules 
the night, and the classics the dark ages, but 
the English tongue in the nineteenth century 
is the sun at its meridian ! 

Mr. Gai'field once wisely said : " Grecian 
children were taught to reverence the virtues 



32 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

of their ancestors, but our educational forces 
are so wielded as to teach our children to ad- 
mire most that which is foreign, fabulous, and 
dead." 

An almost new field of inquiry which ought 
deeply to interest every young man is the 
mighty march of science. However, I warn 
you against thinking that science is the only 
truth. Some young men will read a half- 
column review of Tyndall and Huxley, and 
then think they are too intellectual to be Chris- 
tians. There is really no conflict between re- 
ligion and science. Each has its distinct field 
of work. The harm is done by scientists med- 
dling with theology, and theologians meddling 
with science. Indeed, I think more harm has 
been done to the Christian religion by its foolish 
friends than by its enemies. There is a vast 
deal of trash among religious books. Every- 
body writes about religion now. They must 
do it. There is everywhere a deep interest on 
this subject. Novels discuss theology and 
uewspapers publish sermons. There is a deep 
unrest and ferment in men's minds that must 
be satisfied. And so there is a great deal of 



READING. 33 

foolishness written upon this subject. And I 
expect religious trash is the worst kind of 
trash ; and the worst reading we can do. 
There are so many really great religious books, 
so many literary gems, so much that is elo- 
quent and thoughtful and honest and liberal 
and manly, that it does seem a pity for a young 
man to get his religious notions from some 
wild, ingenious fellow who is trying to create 
a sensation and say something startling. Do 
not read any religious trash. 

But let me say one word about The Book. 
Do you young men read the Bible ? 

A few years ago I lived on the Potomac 
river, and some young men came down from 
Baltimore to shoot ducks. One of them open- 
ed his valise to get some cartridges, and some- 
thing fell out. It was not a flask of whiskey 
or a deck of cards, but a Bible. I could not 
help feeling my heart go out to him when I 
saw it. " Wherewith shall a young man 
cleanse his way, by taking heed thereunto ac- 
cording to Thy word." I think the greatest 
mistake any man can make in the reading line 
is to neglect his Bible. Even as a literary 
2* 



34 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

production there is no such book; the most 
ancient history, the sublimest poetry, the lofti- 
est philosophy, the sweetest stories, the purest 
morals, the most perfect style, the most 
exalted doctrines, and the profoundest truth ! 

And yet perhaps this book, so studied and 
loved by many, is dull to you. 

It must be because you have not read it 
aright. Perhaps you read it from habit and 
when you were sleepy or tired. Perhaps you 
looked through a chapter with your eyes when 
your thoughts were afar off. 

Try to read it as you would read another 
book. Read the gospel of St. Matthew right 
through. Study the circumstances, the author, 
the readers, the time ; live again at old Rome 
or Corinth and in the days of St. Paul, and 
then read through the epistle to the Romans 
and see if your heart will not burn. Read 
the Bible when you are well and awake, read 
it honestly, faithfully, affectionately, as a mes- 
sage from your Father. There is nothing 
that will help you so much. It will make you 
better, happier, stronger, and braver. It will 
become your dearest and most intimate friend. 



READING. 35 

And when at last the hair is white and the eye 
dim, and hands, heart, and brain are weary 
with life's journey, the Bible will be as tender 
and sympathetic as a mother. 

And when later still you lie down on your 
dying bed, the Bible will be your ministering 
angel. Other books will look coldly down 
from the shelves. Shakespeare will in vain 
attempt to divert you with his dramas, and 
Byron with his sonnets and Sheridan with his 
speeches and Dickens and Scott with their 
stories, but the Bible will draw very near your 
bed, and take you by the hand, and speak 
words of encouragement and consolation, and 
prepare you for that world where we shall have 
to study no more — for there we shall see face 
to face, and know all things even as we are 
also known. 






IV. — BAD HABITS. 




ET us lay aside every weight * 
* * * * and let us run with 
patience the race that is set be- 
fore us." 

In the preceding chapter the writer of the 
epistle to the Hebrews names over many of the 
heroes of faith, and tells their achievements. 
In this chapter he says these laurel-crowned 
victors having finished their course in faith 
have sat down to watch us. This is to stimu- 
late us. It is the amphitheater of the world 
that we are in, and tier after tier of witnesses 
encompass us about. Seeing this is so, let us 
do our best, let us lay aside every weight. 

Did you ever play a match game of Base- 
ball, when all the town were out i pon the 
ground and ready to cheer your club, and the 
marshals could hardly keep the eager crowd 
back from the ropes, and the game was very 

(36) 



BAD HABITS. 37 

close, and the scorer called you to the bat ? 
Did you keep your coat on ? Didn't your 
collar choke you ? Didn't you give your watch 
to your friend to hold ? Didn't you lay aside 
every weight ? Now the Greek took one step 
more. He nearly starved himself, and thus 
laid aside every weight of superfluous flesh, 
and then put on his thinnest clothing and 
lightest shoes and was ready ! Now the kind 
of weights that I will speak of to-night are 
those that fit us like our clothing or even grow 
upon us like our flesh. Hence they are properly 
called habits. Good habits are like muscles 
trained and hardened for the race. They help 
us. Bad habits are like heavy clothing or 
superfluous flesh or even diseased flesh. They 
hinder us in the race of life, and in the race 
for heaven. 

Habits are of three kinds — habits of 
thought, of word, and of deed. Some men 
imagine that they are not responsible for their 
thoughts. But they are. Perhaps a man is 
not to be blamed for every individual thought 
that the devil thrusts into his mind. But he 
is certainly responsible for his habits of thought, 



38 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

And I should say for those individual thoughts 
that come from habit. Start several men out 
into a strange city to " see the sights." They 
go in different directions. The good man 
visits good institutions ; the learned man finds 
the libraries and museums ; the worldly man 
finds the theaters ; the dissipated man goes to 
the saloons. In the same way start several 
men to thinking from the same standpoint. 
Immediately their thoughts diverge from force 
of habit. Now these habits can be controlled. 
You can make your thoughts go in good chan- 
nels. Or, to change the figure you can force 
the bad out by filling your mind with the good. 
You go to-day into the woods and you will find 
the trees covered with dry, dead leaves. You 
cannot shake them off. The wind cannot blow 
them off. The rain cannot beat them off. 
But after a while the spring will come, the sap 
will rise and the young, tender leaves will 
come out and force these dead leaves from the 
stem and take their places. So with bad 
thoughts and all bad habits. You cannot say 
" I will leave them off," unless you bring 
in the good, and make them force out the bad, 



BAD HABITS. 39 

and take the place of the bad, and fill the 
mind. Now this can be done, and must be 
done. No young man can expect much in the 
race of life who has no control of his thoughts. 
Pure thinking is the fountain of all purity; 
good thinking the fountain of all goodness ; 
but evil thinking is poison in the fountain 
which vitiates all the branches of life. 

Next to thinking is speaking. Again you 
say men are not the gossips. But I am not- 
going to speak of gossiping. However, I will 
say that not all the gossips are found among 
women. Many women have lifted themselves 
above this blighting evil. And some men 
have taken their places. A masculine gossip ! 
A masculine scandal-monger ! It is an unamia- 
ble picture. 

But I desire now to speak of profanity. I am 
satisfied that there are too many of our young 
men from eight years old and upward who 
swear. I shall not discuss the propriety of this 
habit. I know that you all agree with me that it 
is wrong. I don't suppose any body over twelve 
years of age thinks it is pretty or smart or 
brave or manly. Men who swear admit that 



40 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

it is a weakness. It does no good. It impairs 
the force of speech ; lets down your character 
in men's estimation, and incurs the displeasure 
of God Himself. You have the desire to stop 
it, and you certainly have the power. Oh, do 
not take God's holy name in vain. Do not 
make light of what is sacred, and pure and 
high. Nothing could induce you to desecrate 
a sacred place ; why then should you desecrate 
a sacred name or a sacred thing ? 

I don't know whether I ought to say any 
thing about gambling or not. I feel ashamed 
to stand up and say to my friends and neigh- 
bors — " do not gamble ! " And yet, because 
it so often happens when we least expect it, 
perhaps, a few words will do no harm. If any 
of you, my young friends, feel a drawing that 
way ; if you ever bet ; if you ever play for 
cigars, for money, for anything, then you are 
on the smooth and attracting edge of a whirl- 
pool in which multitudes of noble characters 
have been wrecked and lost. 

No passion leads men to such fearful ex- 
tremities. It sets up blind fortune for a god- 
dess. It arouses the seven furies within a man. 



BAD HABlTS. £\ 

It kindles the fires of hell in his breast. It 
nurses rage, promotes quarrels, engenders 
strife, prompts forgery, suggests murder, and 
invites suicide ! It steals men's hearts or turns 
them to stone. Walpole tells of a gambler who 
fell at the table in a fit of apoplexy, and his 
companions began to bet upon his chances of 
recovery. When the physician came in they 
would not let him bleed the man because they 
said it would affect the bet. We know very 
well that last summer, when President Garfield 
was hanging between life and death, men 
bet heavily upon the issue, and even sold pools 
in Chicago, Now this is the habit that I would 
warn you against. You say I have taken ex- 
treme cases. So I have ; but gambling nearly 
always leads to extreme cases. And if a man 
once sets his foot within this labyrinth, he may 
be working further and further in, when he is 
trying to work out. Men never plunge head- 
long into hell. They first pass through the 
outer gate, and then they take a broad and 
safe-looking road, smooth and delightful and 
covered with flowers, and this carries them to 
the inner gate, " and many there be which go 
in thereat ! " 



42 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

Another weight which I think our young 
men ought to lay aside is the concealed deadly 
weapon. What does any man want of a pistol ? 
Is he afraid to walk God's earth without one ? 
What is there for any true man with a 
clear conscience to be afraid of, I should like 
to know ? Is he afraid something is going to 
catch him ? Is he afraid something is going 
to hurt him ? Oh, young man, don't be afraid. 
Leave the pistol at home. There's nothing go- 
ing to hurt you. If you are true gentlemen, 
fair, upright, honest, sober, and if you trust 
in God there is no reason on earth for the 
deadly weapon. 

One more habit I will mention to-night. I 
mean the habit of regarding home as a mere 
sleeping and eating place — the habit of run- 
ning the streets, and especially at night. This 
is sometimes the fault of the parents. They 
don't make home attractive. That ought to 
be their study. It is a more important study 
than Latin or French or music, and a harder 
study too, I expect. How shall we make home 
more pleasant than the streets ? I think the 
boys ought to help us do this. The larger 



BAD HABITS. 43 

boys must help to make home pleasant to the 
younger. I believe a love of home and a wil- 
lingness to stay there is one of the greatest 
safeguards that can be thrown around a boy, 
or that a young man can throw around him- 
self. 

Of course the time must come when like 
young birds we must leave the nest, and make 
a nest of our own. I favor early marriages. 
I believe if young people did not think that 
they must wait for fine houses and large in- 
comes ; but, like our happier forefathers, would 
marry on a modest salary a,nd live in a small 
house, that thousands of young men would be 
saved to happy homes before the street habit 
became fixed and their ruin became inevitable. 

Iirave no time to-night to speak of drinking 
habits. That deserves a whole lecture. 

I have spoken chiefly of general habits. 
Besides these there are many particular and 
personal habits. Let us study our habits. 
Some one has said that " man is merely a bun- 
dle of habits." All habits are worthy of our 
attention. 

We must take care of our little habits. 



44 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

Little ones are only great ones, condensed into 
small forms, as the serpent in the egg, the 
Upas tree in the seed, the explosion in the cold 
powder. The devil does not apply his match 
to the hard coal. But he first lights the shav- 
ings, and the shavings the wood, and the wood 
the coal. And while we might have stamped 
out the blazing shavings the hot burning coals 
are not so easy to extinguish. 

We must also watch our favorite habits. 
We must remember that the strong Samson 
was betrayed to death by his beloved Delilah. 

Again, we must watch our old habits which 
we think we have conquered. If there is one 
point in our character which has broken 
down, we must watch that point; just as men 
watch that part of an embankment which has 
once given away ; and just as firemen continue 
to watch a house when the fire has been put 
out, lest there still be smoldering coals which 
the wind may again fan into a flame. 

Now I am very sure that the best way to re- 
member all of these things, is to remember 
the great race which is set before you. If you 
are eager to run that race, if you feel the in- 



BAD HABITS. 45 

spiration of the cloud of witnesses, if you look 
unto Jesus, who at the goal presents the prize, 
if you hear " God's all-animating voice, that 
calls thee from on high," why then these habits 
will chafe you like weights and chains, and 
you will cast them off, and. so run that you 
will obtain. And earth will be better, and 
heaven will rejoice, and God will say, " Well 
done!" 



*Aa *fu *f!s* */A4. tit* <A* *m* *m* 4/M Jm 4Ja* < A* 6&U *A* 







V.— STRONG DRINK. 




FEEL that I lack one qualification 
which has been prominent in most 
of temperance lecturers whom I 
have heard. I mean experience. Gough, 
Murphy, Doutney and the others gain the sym- 
pathy of the drinking portion of their audi- 
ence by telling them how much whisky they 
have consumed, and what dreadful things they 
have done. I heard Doutney tell how he killed 
his father. Now I never killed my father. I 
have no personal experience, I am glad to say, 
in this matter. I can well understand how a 
man whom God has emancipated from the 
great evil, may be an enthusiastic advocate of 
temperance. He is so impressed with a sense 
of the injury he has suffered that he is filled 
with fury against his old enemy. I think re- 
formed drunkards often go to the extreme of 
looking upon drinking as the only evil, and ab- 

(46) 



STRONG DRIN1C. 4? 

stinence as the only virtue. Now, I do not 
speak of a personal enemy, and therefore will 
lack the passion of personal hate which gives 
eloquence and fire to so many temperance 
lecturers. Indeed, my friends, I do not stand 
before you to-night as a temperance lecturer 
at all ; but only as a preacher of the Gospel. 
Intemperance is an enemy of Christ, and is 
therefore a topic for the pulpit. 

And then there is another thing that I will 
not do. I will not relate any sickening stories 
of what I have seen. That would be easy. 
Every minister, and I suppose every man, who 
has lived in a city has witnessed many sorrow- 
ful scenes. But what we must do to-night is 
to discuss this subject quietly and calmly, and 
see what there is in it, and what is our duty 
in regard to it. 

Let us begin at the bottom. Solomon said, 
"Look not upon the wine when it is red!" 
Wine was the only liquor in his day. For five 
thousand years wine and beer were the only 
liquors. Distilled liquor dates from the 
eleventh century. It comes from the bosom 
of the dark ages. An Alchemist of those 



48 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

days said, " Distilled liquor is a divinely re- 
vealed beverage destined to revive the energies 
of modern decrepitude." But his anticipa- 
tions have been sadly belied ! The alchemy 
of the dark ages hatched this venomous ser- 
pent out of the egg, but who shall ever put it 
back into the egg again ! 

Strong drink is of many kinds. There is 
wine which is the fermented or rotted juice of 
fruit. There is beer which is made of malt 
and hops, roots and herbs. There are " bit- 
ters" which are made of everything. There 
is rum, an East Indian spirit made of refuse 
sugar and molasses. There is gin, a contraction 
of Geneva, and it is made of the oil of tur- 
pentine, cedar berries, and potash. There is 
brandy which is distilled from wine and cider 
and flavored with burnt sugar, hence its name, 
brandy means burnt. And then there is 
whisky. Whisky is a Saxon word and means 
" water of life," which is certainly a misno- 
mer. Would not " water of death " be bet- 
ter ? When I lived in Richmond, an express 
wagon came down Main street one day loaded 
with a barrel of whisky and seven coffins. I 



STRONG DRINK. 49 

thought it was a very just proportion. Now 
what men want in all of these liquors is the 
same. They want alcohol ! A thing unknown 
to nature ; and therefore not the handiwork of 
Nature's God. Now alcohol is a poison and 
therefore everything that contains it is dan- 
gerous. I do not say that poisons are not 
sometimes useful. The most careful physi- 
cians administer laudanum, morphine, strych- 
nine, and arsenic. And even St. Paul wrote 
to Timothy who had long been sick, that he 
must take a little wine. But all poisons are 
dangerous. And medical professors warn 
their students to be cautious how they admin- 
ister alcohol. And some go so far as to say 
that it is a question whether the evil effects of 
its use do not counterbalance the good effects. 
I have great hope from the doctors. I know 
that all sanitary questions are receiving unus- 
ual attention from the masses. Men are begin- 
ning to realize that health is the greatest of 
all earthly blessings ; that it is better than 
wealth or fame. And so when the medical 
faculty boldly declares that alcohol is an enemy 
of health, it gives us a new hope for our race. 



50 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

What is feared is the alcohol habit. And if a 
man forms that habit, he may at first go to 
the alcohol through the circuitous route of 
wine and beer, but he will soon learn the short 
cut through whisky and rum ! A beer drink- 
ing people bequeaths to posterity a rum drink- 
ing generation, as England shows. Merry 
England has become drunken England. And 
a wine-drinking people will be succeeded by a 
brandy-drinking people, as may be seen in 
France where, it appears from recent statistics, 
there are more drunkards than in America. 
And if drinking is worse in England and France 
than with us it must be fearful. We know 
what it is in America. We know that we 
have to pay every month the heavy expense of 
trying drunken and drinking men. We have to 
build jails and asylums and prisons. We have 
to pay for the support of 10,000 lunatics who 
were made lunatics by drink, and for 25,000 
criminals who were made criminals by drink, 
and for 150,000 paupers who were made paupers 
by drink ! Have sober men, then, no interest 
in a question which costs them so much ? 
Have I no voice in a matter which levies a tax 
upon my purse year by year ? 



Strong drink. 5| 

But, let that go. I am willing to leave this 
aspect of the question in the hands of your 
Circuit Judge. And, by the way, I would for 
one, like to put on record my appreciation of 
his boldness in rebuking vice, his faithfulness 
in upholding virtue, and his eloquence in 
pleading for law and order in our midst. He 
said the other day in his charge to the grand 
jury that if he had the money spent for whis- 
ky in this circuit since he has been its judge, 
he could connect all of the towns of the circuit 
by railroad and have f500,000 left in the treas- 
ury. 

But let us draw still nearer to this question, 
young gentlemen. Let us be selfish, if you 
please. Let us forget our country, our church, 
our society, and our neighbors. Let us forget 
the convicts, the maniacs, and the trampled 
wife. Let us simply ask, " What is alcohol to 
me?" And in answer to this question let Dr. 
B. W. Richardson, of London, the very highest 
authority, be our guide. Suppose I have on a 
table several glasses of whisky. I drink a glass 
of whisky and it passes into my blood, 
through the heart, along the arteries and veins 



52 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

into the lungs, and finally to the brain. Every 
part of the body tries to refuse admission to 
the poison, and so it hurries on, but leaves 
some behind at every point. When the whis- 
ky reaches the heart, it weakens its nerves 
and the heart beats faster. The heart beats 
100,000 strokes a day without the liquor, but 
with it 130,000 strokes. This extra work is 
very wearing upon the heart. 

At last the alcohol attacks the spinal cord. 
This makes men stagger, for the spinal cord 
is poisoned for the time and loses control of 
the limbs. Finally this same liquor poisons 
the cerebral or brain centers and dethrones 
the reason. If I continue to drink, the spinal 
cord is so poisoned that all control is lost, the 
brain nerves so poisoned that all reason is 
lost, and they call that dead drunk. And this 
man made in the image of God lies uncon- 
scious, helpless, degraded, poisoned through 
and through. Dead drunk, but not dead. 
Put your hand upon his heart; the nerves, 
those bridles of the heart, are let loose, and 
the heart bounds at a frightful rate. Dead, 
and yet he lives. He lives to die another 
day! 



STRONG DRINK. 53 

Men drink for many reasons. Some drink 
to aid their digestion. But in the long run 
alcohol does not help digestion. If you put 
an oyster, which, raw, is very digestible, into 
a glass of alcohol it will shrivel up and become 
as hard as leather. Alcohol makes food indi- 
gestible and hardens the liver itself. Men say 
we drink because it is cold. But strong drink 
does not help men endure continued cold. 
That has been proved in the Arctic explora- 
tions. It does not enable men to endure fa- 
tigue ; that has been proved in the war. It does 
not help men endure heat ; that has been 
proved by the sun-stroke reports. It does not 
make men fat, but bloats them. It does not 
make men healthy. It does not strengthen the 
constitution, but weakens it. The history of 
cholera and of all epidemics shows that it les- 
sens the power to resist diseases, and contri- 
butes to their fatality by impairing the ability 
to overcome them. Some persons imagine 
that drink gives new strength and life and 
courage and flow of spirits, intellect and wit. 
And so it does for awhile, and that is its great 
injury. It uses up the reserve force of health 



54 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

and brain which God has given for the emer- 
gencies of life. 

Drink creates nothing ; no heat or life or 
wit or strength or courage. It paralyzes the 
nerves which guard the reserve force, and uses 
this reserve force when it is not needed. For 
a while the fire burns bright, the life and inr 
tellect are intensified, but when the emergency 
comes and the extra brain and health is need- 
ed, the drinking man fails, and if it be sick- 
ness, dies, where the reserve force would have 
carried him through. What defeated Napoleon 
at Waterloo was that he had used his reserves 
in the early part of the battle. Alcohol does 
not strengthen, but it weakens the heart, it 
injures the lungs, it shatters the nerves, it 
poisons the blood. Nothing is more beautiful 
in man or woman than a ruddy complexion, the 
glow of health. But the flush of fever is not 
beautiful, the painted face is not beautiful ; 
but worse than the painted face is the poisoned 
face, inflamed or flushed with alcohol. That 
inflammation extends throughout the system. 
It we could see the heart it would be inflamed. 
If you could see the lungs they would be in- 



STRONG DRINK. 55 

flamed. The brain would be inflamed. 
This Dr. Richardson says : " I once had the 
unusual, though unhappy, opportunity of ob- 
serving this phenomenon, in the brain struc- 
ture of a man who, in a paroxysm of alcoholic 
excitement, decapitated himself under the 
wheel of a railroad carriage, and whose brain 
was instantly evolved from the skull by the 
crash. The brain itself, entire, was before me 
within three minutes after the death. It ex- 
haled the odor of spirit most distinctly, and 
looked as if it had been recently injected with 
vermilion." 

Young men know that alcohol affects the 
brain, but many of them do not know that it 
actually goes into the brain and lodges there. 
Why, cases are on record in which alcohol has 
actually been distilled from the brain-matter 
of a dead drunkard ; which when set on lire 
burnt with a blue flame. No wonder the live 
drunkard sees blue blazes ! 

The dead drunkard ! How sad his fate. 
He did not intend to be a drunkard. The ap- 
petite beguiled him. The temptation became 
Stronger and the will weaker. The brain be- 



56 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

came cloudy, business went wrong, troubles 
and perplexities came, the health gave way, 
and he died. In that once happy home are 
the signs of poverty. The drunkard's dear 
wife, in faded dress, weeps bitterly ; his once 
loved children, neglected and hungry and cold, 
cling to their mother's side ; and in the cham- 
ber of death, with locked doors, the poor skull 
is opened, and the poisoned brains taken out, 
and the chemist distils them into a fluid that 
burns with ghastly blaze to light the pathway 
of advancing science ! 

Oh, young men, when in the darkness of 
night you feel drawn like moths toward the 
light in the bar-room window, I hope it will 
remind you of the blue blaze burning from the 
drunkard's empty skull, and that it may prove 
to you a signal light of danger that will divert 
your feet into the paths of temperance and 
safety. 



mm. 






VI — COMPANIONS. 



/ 




LESSED is the man who walketh 
not in the counsel of the ungodly, 
nor standeth in the way of sinners, 
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." 
Psalms i. 1. 

Every man has a character. It may be a 
bad one, but one of some kind he undoubtedly 
has. I shall not define character, you know 
what I mean by it. I desire, however, to 
speak of one quality of every character, and 
that is plasticity. Soft clay or putty or dough 
has plasticity, so you know what I mean by 
that. All men's character are plastic. Some 
more, some less. God speaks of men as pot- 
ter's clay, which he moulds at will. How far 
God moulds men's characters and destinies we 
will not discuss. But we also see that in the 
jostle and companionship of these plastic 
characters, they mould and shape each other. 

(57) 



58 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

And that is what we will speak about to- 
night. 

No man knows exactly how plastic he is ; 
and every man, I doubt not, thinks he is less 
so than he really is. We shall never know in 
this world how far our salvation or damnation 
has been affected by contact with our fellows. 

As some portions of the body are more sus- 
ceptible of contagion than other portions, so 
also are some parts of the character. The in- 
tellectual character is affected by other in- 
tellects. The emotional character is affected 
by the emotions of others. The literary and 
artistic tastes are improved or debased by as- 
sociations. Sir Peter Lely would never look 
at a bad picture, because he said it tainted his 
own pencil. 

But the part of us most easily influenced 
and changed by associations is our moral and 
religious character. 

And then there is another thing. These 
plastic moral characters are much more af- 
fected by evil than by good associations. Men 
are infected with disease but not with health. 
Now these are some of the reasons why David 



COMPANIONS. 59 

thought a man was blessed if he did not walk 
with the ungodly, stand with sinners, and sit 
with the scornful. 

But you ask me, did not the Pharisees bring 
against Jesus the true sentence, " this man 
receiveth sinners, and eateth with them ? " So 
they did, but you and I are not Jesus. He 
could go where we cannot go. A glass of 
pure water may be shaken and remain pure, 
but a little sediment in the bottom discolors 
all. Christ had no plasticity in his character. 
Not even a dent was made upon the Rock of 
Ages by storms which would sweep us to de- 
struction. 

But after all, even we may hold fellowship 
with men of all kinds if we go among them 
with the same motives that Jesus went. He 
mingled with the votaries of sin only to re- 
form them. He went with the publican and 
sinner as the physician goes into the plague 
hospital. If that be your spirit, you may still 
be blessed though you walk and stand and sit 
with the ungodly and the wicked. 

Our text speaks of three classes of danger- 
ous companions, ungodly, sinners and scornful. 



60 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

The ungodly includes all of those who are 
practically without God. They may be pro- 
fessed infidels or not, but if God is not in any 
of their thoughts and plans and pleasures ; if 
God is not in any of their counsels, we ought 
not to walk in their counsels. I advise young 
men not to select for a companion one who 
acts and speaks as if God did not exist. 

Then comes the sinner. In one sense all 
are sinners. But David means the wicked. 
He means the dissipated, the gambler, the pro- 
fane, the vulgar, the adulterer. I know, young 
gentlemen, that society has with shameless 
hand opened her doors to all of these. But 
God will not save your character here and your 
soul hereafter merely to accommodate society. 
Society is an imperious queen, with great power 
and many worshipers, but I say society can- 
not cleanse the stream which she has permitted 
to be contaminated by this influx of garbage. 
If society compels a man to hold sweet con- 
course with profanity and all that is wicked 
and impure and defiling to the mind and tastes 
and imagination, then I say he had better quit 
society. But I don't believe this. I don't be- 



COMPANIONS. (ft 

lieve any young man is obliged to associate 
with what is low and degraded, just because 
society allows low and degraded men into her 
ranks. Every man can look out for himself. 
Without any cant or sanctimoniousness or 
affected goodness or mock modesty he can let 
others see that he likes what is clean and re- 
verent and noble. And I do not believe any 
true man will despise him for the preference. 

The next step down is to the scorner. Men 
may be ungodly and wicked without being 
scornful of what is good. The ungodly is an 
ww-believer, the sinner is a mzs-believer, but 
the scornful is a <&'s-believer. Like the dog in 
the manger, he worships nothing himself and 
tries to destroy other men's worship. I think 
scorners must be altogether avoided. You 
cannot do them good, and they will do you 
harm. The ungodly may become interested ; 
the sinner may repent, but Solomon says : 
" Though thou should st bray a fool in a mor- 
tar among wheat with a pestle, yet will his 
foolishness not depart from him." 

" Blessed is the man that sitteth not in the 
seat of the scornful ! " 



62 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

We have noticed the progession of sin, first 
the ungodly, then the sinner, then the scorn- 
ful. But there is also progression in the 
character of him who is exposed to sin. First 
he walks, then he stands, then he sits. More 
and more secure, until finally lost to a sense 
of his peril. At first he walks with doubtful 
and uneasy steps beside his companion. The 
fascination grows. The distrust wears away. 
They meet the next companion, the sinner 
joins the ungodly. They stop, they stand. 
The scorner comes and offers the companions 
a chair, and they all sit down together. And 
the devil goes home to dinner. That is always 
the way. Sin is gradual. It does not break 
out upon a man until it has long circulated 
through this system. Murder, adultery, theft 
are not committed in deed until they have been 
committed in thought again and again. Men 
do not scorn with the scorner until they have 
sinned with the sinner, and been careless with 
the ungodly. The taste for bad company 
grows like the taste for tobacco. At first a 
mild cigarette makes you sick, but after a while 
you can smoke an old pipe full of the strong- 



COMPANIONS. 63 

est and blackest Kentucky leaf. At one time 
the ungodly man sickens you, but by and by 
you can enjoy the blasphemy of the scorner, 
because you yourself are saturated with the 
nicotine of his wickedness. 

If any foreigner should ask me what I con- 
sidered the great advantages of our country to 
young men, I should say that one of the 
greatest advantages is that any young man, 
who will, can have the companionship and scn 
ciety of the best and purest and wisest men of 
our land. 

And there is no greater advantage to a 
young man than that. 

We sometimes hear young men say, " if I 
had had Blank's opportunity I could do as 
well as he." And yet perhaps they neglect the 
best opportunity Blank had ; viz. : the com- 
panionship of the great and good. No college, 
no study, nothing can compensate for the loss 
of good associations. 

We must be courteous and polite, and even 
cordial to all men. " Honor all men," said 
St. Peter. We ought to have a large sympathy 
with all men. We ought to feel for them, and 



g4 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

show ourselves ready to serve them. We 
must despise no man. We must speak evil of 
no man. But when it comes to selecting 
friends and companions, it is another matter. 
In this we must be slow and critical. We 
must ask, what influence is my contact with 
this man's thought and habits and conversa- 
tion having upon my thought and habits and 
conversation ? How does his character affect 
my character ? And if we find that we already 
have injurious companions, we can, without 
any pride or foolishness or rudeness, drop out, 
or so conduct ourselves that these compan- 
ions will either improve or drop out them- 
selves. 

You will find that the world sings a different 
psalm from this of David. The world says, 
" Blessed is the man who walks in the counsels 
of the aristocrat, and standeth in the way of 
the grandee, and sitteth at the table of the 
millionaire ! " 

Please do not misunderstand me. I would 
not antagonize classes. I do not mean that 
one class of society has better men than 
another class. I simply mean to condemn the 



COMPANIONS. 65 

world's weakness in running after great people 
and being ashamed of men of low estate, when 
the great are godless and the humble are true. 

Blessed is the man who has force of charac- 
ter to keep good company ! 

Blessed is the man who is not afraid to at- 
tempt a reformation of ungodly acquaintances 
and in case of failure to forsake them ! 

Blessed is the man who is not ashamed of 
the aristocracy of hard hands, or the friend- 
ship of poor, but honest men ; and is ashamed 
of the thief in soft raiment and spiritual wick- 
edness in high places ! 

Blessed is the prosperous man whose success 
makes him humble and thankful instead of 
contemptuous and proud ! 

Blessed is the man who in shunning evil 
associates does not become sanctimonious and 
Pharisaical; but who is like the Lord, who 
being equal with God, took the form of a ser- 
vant, and bore a kind and friendly demeanor 
toward all mankind. 

And lastly, let me say, blessed is the man 
who in choosing friends and companions, ever 
strives to cultivate the acquaintance and com- 



QQ TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

panionship of Him who is " the chief of ten 
thousand and altogether lovely," so that he 
shall be like the disciples of old, who, though 
unlearned and ignorant men, astonished the 
people with their wisdom and power. " Men 
took knowledge of them, that they had been 
with Jesus." 



VII— RELIGION. 




" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
saved." Acts— 16:31. 

OR six Sunday evenings I have been 
speaking to you upon quite a variety 
of subjects. I began by reminding 
you of your high destiny as men, and the vast 
possibilities of your life. We then took note 
of the shortness of this life. We marked the 
influence of books upon this life. We con- 
sidered bad habits, the weights which retard 
the work of life. We gave a whole lecture to 
strong drink, the worst of these habits, and 
another lecture to the influence of companions. 
So far, we have been speaking of moralities 
only. This evening, in this closing talk, let 
religion be our theme. You know a man may 
be moral without being religious. Some irre- 
ligious men neither swear, nor drink, nor gam- 
ble, nor slander, nor steal. And morality is 

(67) 



63 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

certainly better than immorality. But irre- 
ligious morality does not please God. It is 
not a stepping-stone to God. It is not meet- 
ing God half way. And while you may in- 
deed be moral without religion it is very diffi- 
cult and improbable, and it would be impossible, 
I think, but for the support received from a 
religious atmosphere. Irreligious morality is 
the reflected light of Christian civilization, 
just as the suburbs of a city receive a reflected 
light from the street lamps. Undoubtedly, 
the true power, the great power to make men 
temperate and pure is to make them the follow- 
ers of Jesus. We may illustrate this by a well- 
known story from classic mythology. On an isle 
in the sea near Peloris, south of Italy, once 
dwelt some sirens, who by their music and songs 
often tempted the sailors from their voyages, 
and after lulling them to sleep drowned them 
in the sea. When Ulysses went that way he 
stopped up his sailors' ears and bound himself 
to the mast, and so with great pains got 
safely by. But when Orpheus came with his 
ship to that isle he took out his lyre and pour- 
ed forth such strains of melody that the en- 



£eligioM. 69 

raptured sailors forgot the sirens altogether. 
So I say, men may bind their unwilling hearts 
by fear of public opinion, and so pass regret- 
fully by the world's allurements. But the 
Gospel, which binds no man, fills his soul with 
heavenly music that drowns the fascinations 
of sin. And that is not all. The mere moral- 
ities, with all their pains to carry the man past 
the sirens, launch him at last upon a bound- 
less and shoreless sea. But religion not only 
fills the voyage itself with music, but bears the 
bark over the stormy sea to shining shores and 
a happy haven ! 

That is what salvation is. " The promise of 
the life that now is, and of that which is to 
come." Therefore salvation is everything. 
And when Paul and Silas said to the jailor, 
" believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
shalt be saved" they meant everything. It 
means a happy voyage as well as a happy des- 
tination. Salvation begins now. Oh, " my 
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, 
that they may be saved." My desire and 
prayer is that salvation may come to you now, 
and from this moment bear its fruits, making 



70 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

your youth, joyous aud pure, your manhood 
strong, your age blessed, and your eternity 
glorious ! How shall we gain so great a boon ? 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps you 
have thought that religion is something else. 
Perhaps you thought it was sitting up straight 
all day Sunday reading a dry book. Per- 
haps you thought it was being solemn and 
sanctimonious. Perhaps you thought it was 
giving up your youthful spirit and gladness of 
heart. Perhaps you thought it was thinking 
about death. Perhaps you thought it was set- 
ting yourself up for a young saint. Perhaps 
you thought it was going through some mirac- 
ulous experience, some convulsions of joy and 
sorrow and hope and fear. But, whatever you 
have thought, Christianity in reality and truth 
is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Is that all ? you ask. Yes, that includes all. 
Do I believe in repentance? Yes: for "ex- 
cept ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." 
Do I believe in conversion ? Yes, for u except 
ye be converted ye shall not enter into the 
Kingdom of Heaven." Do I believe in bap- 
tism ? Yes, for " except a man be born of water 



RELIGION. 71 

and the spirit he cannot enter into the King- 
dom of God." Do I believe in salification ? 
Yes, I believe in " holiness, without which no 
man can see the Lord." I believe all this and 
still I say, " believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and thou shalt be saved ! " Let me explain 
myself. Suppose this room to be a dark, 
damp cavern. Suppose I was born here and 
reared here without one ray of light. They 
tell me that this place is damp and dark and 
cold and filled with loathsome reptiles. I know 
that it is true, yet I should miss these crawling 
creatures if removed ; they are my only com- 
pany. They tell me that there is beyond a 
world of light and beauty. In one sense 
I believe it. I indifferently suppose it is 
true. I have no experience of such 
things. The words beauty and light 
make no distinct impressions upon my mind. 
Yet perhaps it is all true. But as time wears 
away I become dissatisfied. The place grows 
wearisome. The serpents sting me. I long 
for a change. I clamor upon the walls, but 
all in vain. But at last a friendly hand makes 
an opening and a white ray of light beams 



72 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

down. Oh, the revelation. It does not yet 
show the outer world, but this first light shows 
me the horrors of my prison house, the slimy 
floor, the loathsome creatures. I clamor 
again upon the walls, but again in vain. I 
feel that outside help must save me if I am 
saved at all. I look hard at the opening, and 
in it I see a hand ; a friendly hand ; an invit- 
ing hand ; and I hear a voice saying " come." 
I flee from the stinging scorpions and fatal 
fangs. I hasten to that outreaching hand. I 
am lifted up. I am saved. My kind friend 
takes me to his bosom. He even permits me 
to sign a contract by which I become his 
brother, his father's son, his co-heir. Oh, 
what can I do to show my gratitude. " Three 
things," he says, " first, love me ; second, join 
with me in saving others ; third, get the foul 
dungeon's poison out of your system." Alas, 
my benefactor, these are privileges, not labors, 
to my grateful heart! I think you already see 
the application of all this to the soul's salva- 
tion. The natural man is in a world of dark- 
ness and sin. The old serpent stings him. 
Perhaps he longs for release. The Holy Spirit 



RELIGION. 73 

is the friendly light, dawning gradually upon 
some, flashing upon others. That light shows 
him the serpents of death — that is conviction. 
He labors to escape unhelped and alone, but 
fails, — that is dead works without faith. The 
Holy Light shows him Jesus. He sees and 
realizes and trusts — that is faith. He turns 
away from the venom of sin — that is repent- 
ance. He turns to the outstretched hand of 
Jesus — that is conversion. He is re-born into 
covenanted relations with God in baptis-m ; 
either making for the first time this contract 
himself, or ratifying with his own signature a 
contract already made. He loves and praises 
his benefactor — that is worship. He helps 
others — that is good works. He labors with 
spiritual food and exercise, to cleanse his soul 
of sin's poison — that is sanctification. 

All of these things are inseparable from the 
plan of salvation and inseparable from the be- 
lief in Jesus. What saved the man ? Believing, 
trusting the saving arm of Christ. Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and all the rest of 
the plan will grow out of it. Believe and thou 
ehalt be saved, 
4 



74 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

The longer I live to see my fellow-men and 
to know my own poor heart, the more I am 
convinced that Christianity is a personal mat- 
ter between the soul and the Saviour. Men 
and women ask, Can church members do this 
or that, or indulge in such and such amuse- 
ments ? All I say is, Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, rely on Him, confide in Him, be 
in union with Him, and you are a better judge 
than I can be as to what you must do. I am 
not asking you young men to embrace any set 
of rules. I am not asking you blindly to swal- 
low any superstitions or old wives' fables. I 
am not asking you merely to fall into some 
conventional, beaten track. Nor to sink your 
manhood in anything weak or effeminate, nor 
to set yourselves up for young saints ; nor to 
feed on lifeless fossils of the past. But 
I do ask you to believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Not the Christ of history; nor the 
Jesus of two thousand years ago. But the 
Jesus of the Nineteenth century. The Jesus 
of 1882. The Jesus of this 5th day of Feb- 
ruary. The Jesus who this very moment, 
alive, breathing and pulsating with love, sits 



RELIGION. 75 

at the right hand of His Father and our 
Father. Nothing else will do. Nothing else 
will sustain a man in his real, present, and 
personal needs, but a real, present, and person- 
al Saviour. You want the element of personal 
power and help, which you find when walking 
side by side and hand in hand with the living 
Christ. 

Have you ever thoughtlessly said that this 
Christ is not worthy of a man's life, this 
Christ is for women and children ? Oh, try 
him, and you will find that here only may the 
soul find a worthy object, here only its full 
development. What other thing can you set 
up and say, this is worthy of my immortal 
powers. What other god is worth living for. 

Is your body your god ? Then very soon your 
god will be a rotting mass, with no throne but a 
coffin and no worshipers but worms. " He 
that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap 
corruption." 

Is earthly love your god? Alas! alas! 
What a cruel god you have. It will spend 
your first years in gaining possession of your 
heart, and your last years in breaking it. God 



7$ talks to y:vn:- men 

save me from lore, if the grave is the end of 

Is fame your god ? And what have you to 
expect from fame ? The past with its bright* 
es: stars growing dim in the distance, the 
present with its millions of ambitious men 
crowding and climbing over each other's heads ; 
the future with its wonderful advancements in 
learning and science, all show what a small 
share must be ours when fame divides her 
spoils. When you die it will make a few cir- 
cles of comment and grief among your friends. 
Like a stone cast upon the water, there are the 
well-defined circles growing feebler, and then 
ceasing as the stream flows smoothly on. 
Friends will weep some days ; acquaintances 
will make their exclamations ; the newspaper 
will have its soon-forgotten paragraph; and 
the tomb will record its simple history that 
you were born on one day and died on another. 
Be these your gods, young men ! 

Compare them with the cause of Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. Divest that cause of all its 
scaffolding and incidentals, the hypocrisies, 
the envvin^rs, the h'^T^r mistakes ud sits 



RELIGION. 77 

which hang over the dear face of Jesus to hide 
it. Look at that face as it is. Look at His 
helping hand. Look at His pure, great cause 
which, in spite of all its human overgrowth, 
is doing so much for man, and which can do 
so much for you. 

Why do young men avoid Him, who Him- 
self a young man was so gentle and modest 
and pure and sympathetic. 

Souls of men ! why will ye scatter 
Like a crowd of frightened sheep ? 
Foolish hearts ! why will ye wander 
Prom a love so true and deep ? 

It is God : His love looks mighty, 
But is mightier than it seems ! 
'Tis our Father : and His fondnesa 
Goes far out beyond our dreams. 

There's a wideness in God's mercy, 
Like the wideness of the sea ; 
There's a kindness in his justice, 
Which is more than liberty. 

There is grace enough for thousands 
Of new worlds as great as this ; 
There is room for fresh creations 
In that upper home of bliss. 



75 TALKS TO YOUN 

For the lore of God is broader 
Than the measure of man's mind; 
And the heart of die Eternal 

Is most wonderfully kind. 

There is plentiful redemptiow 
In the blood that has been shed ; 
There is joy for all the members 
b the sorrows of the head 

If our lore were but more simple 
We should take Him at His word ; 
And our lives would be all sunshine 
In the sweetness of the Lord. 



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